Dancing Flames
by tig3rlilyx
Summary: Betrayal. Lies. Revenge. It is almost impossible for someone to be the same as they used to be after painfully going through all these. But with a little help, and not to mention the willingness to be helped, the broken can be fixed. A PROJECT K fanfiction. NOTE: a 'teensy' bit of cursing can be found.
1. RUN

**#1 Run**

* * *

"Fucking hell..."

19 year old Yata Misaki cursed as he rubbed on the swelling just on the left corner of his lip. It was the result of the fight they just had with one of the rival gangs of HOMRA, "ACE". Well, it wasn't exactly that much of a fight after their king showed up and wiped every single one of them off effortlessly as always. But still, before that Yata and his partner, Kamamoto Rikio had been fairly outnumbered. Normally Yata wouldn't have had much of a problem in fights - no cuts or bruises, he would have been almost untouchable, but ACE wouldn't be known as a rival group if they hadn't put up a fight now, would it?

"That's what you get for causing all the trouble", chided a blonde man standing at a staggering height of 6 foot 2, turning his head slightly to send a glare from behind his shades at Yata, his cigarette hanging loose between his lips.

In defense, Yata exlaimed, "Those punks came at me first, Kusanagi-san! Ask Kamamoto if you don't believe me!", he pointed a finger at his partner beside him, a man with tanned skin and a darker blonde compared to Kusanagi Izumo's, not to mention a belly as well.

"W-Well, it's quite true", Kamamoto had a couple of bruises himself, but nothing he couldn't handle.

"Even so, why did you do to make them call on just about every single one of'em?"

"They wanted a fight, so I gave them a fight!"

"Jesus, Yata, when will it get into that thick skull of your-"

"Oh give him a break, Kusanagi-san" In came the ever-gentle voice of Totsuka Tatara, who landed a hand on Yata's shoulder, the warm smile plastered on his face as always. "He's probably learned his lesson. Right, Yata?"

"Have you, Yata?

Before Yata could argue further, they were interrupted by the cold voice of their king, so low it resembled the purring of a lion, "Leave it. It's over anyway."

Suoh Mikoto.

The king. The Red King.

The King of HOMRA.

He was a man who gave off a distinct aura of aloofness, what with his cold yet fiery amber eyes, and the lack of emotions shown on his face. It was hard to tell what he was truly thinking. But even though he appeared nonchalant, his clansmen always knew he had their backs.

Nobody could've have asked for a better king.

And walking close to him with her little hand holding on to the edge of his jacket was an albino girl, her eyes an unusual shade of red. Little Anna, forever staying so close to the king who was probably the only one who could give her the safest feeling in the world, the only one with the brightest and liveliest Aura amongst all others in her colour-blind eyes.

Silence engulfed them as they continued on walking down the street, with Yata hanging his head low, his skateboard in one hand and the other gripping loosely on his trusty metal baseball bat, feeling a tad bit guilty for causing the king unnecessary trouble. He silently cursed himself for being such an idiot.

But that was when they all heard an unmistakable roar of motorbike engines coming down the road from across them. It grew louder and louder till it was almost deafening as they came closer.

"Lemme guess. It's those show offs again", a fellow clansmen, Chitose, spoke from behind with an almost disgusted tone in his voice.

"The JOKERS", Kusanagi said under his breath, only it sounded more exasperated than anything. At this, the king made a 'tch' sound, and took a deep pull on his cigarette.

Yata, who was always ready for a fight, locked his eyes on the road, waiting for the first glimpse of those bikes with his eyebrows pulled tightly together, and his grip naturally tightened on his skateboard and bat. "What are they up to now?"

Nobody had an answer for that, as they were all just waiting for the same thing as he is.

And out they came, tearing down the road on their big bikes in almost like a formation of a V shape. The engines roared and growled like a predator on the prowl. They were coming straight for them, those JOKERS. And of course, HOMRA was ever ready for what was coming for them. They all had their faces set, and their fists or weapons at the ready. But what was their reason for this? Why did they approach them so boldly? Was it because of what happened earlier? Because of ACE?

No. As far as they knew, the JOKERS were a dangerous and wild bunch of bikers, otherwise known as Bosozokus, who raced and did things just for the sake of fun. Most of the punks Yata had came across before either looked like they had a loose screw in their heads, or they were just some thrill-seeking sadists who, like him, unfortunately, always jumped at the oppurtunity to start a fight. They would start a fight with just about anybody at all, so they probably had more enemies compared to HOMRA. Why would they want to revenge ACE then?

And that's when Kamamoto pointed out to the street across them, saying, "There! I think they're chasing them!"

Everybody had their eyes averted to where Kamamoto pointed, and there they found their gaze on a young woman holding a little boy's hand, probably about the same age as Anna, running down the street as fast as they can. But not fast enough because how could they ever outrun a motorbike?

The JOKERS had their bikes so close to the streets it looked as if they were just going to ditch the road and hit the pavements, and possibly even the pedestrians as well if they really did so. The roar of the engine was absolutely deafening and irritating it felt as if you couldn't even hear what you're thinking. There were at least six or eight of them, all after the same thing. The girl and the kid.

Most of them had all sorts of their weapons out and ready to strike her when they had the chance. Crowbars, baseball bats, machete. And guns. One was already aiming at the girls head, but as he pulled the trigger, it missed her merely by inches and whizzed past her ear. This made her duck, but she was quick to recover and continue running for her life.

"We've gotta help them!", Yata exlaimed, his grip on his bat was so tight his knuckles have gone white. Before he could even get any response from his fellow clansmen, he was already on the move. Dropping his skateboard onto the ground and with one swift movement, he was stepping on it and with one great push off the ground with his right foot, he was heading straight for them, his bat slowly being engulfed in blazing red flame. It was one of perks of being part of HOMRA. It was a gift from the king. An extraordinary power like none other - the ability to bend fire at your will.

One of the bikes were so close to the pavements, so close to the girl that the outstretched hand of the man sitting behind the rider, holding a crowbar could almost hit her if he could stretch out just a little bit more. But before he could do that, the man found himself being thrown off the bike along with his fellow rider and they both fell hard on the road, the motorbike swerving out of control and finally dropped onto the road like a dead cat, it's roar lowered into a purr. Yata had striked the rider hard in the face with his flaming bat. They were so focused on the girl and the kid the rider didn't even see him coming.

"You punks think you fucking own the road?!"

Huffing and puffing, the young woman chanced a glance backwards at the young lad who had just saved her. But a glance at his back was all it was and her eyes were back on the streets, running and running as fast as she could, but it wasn't her fastest, she couldn't because of the boy beside her, running as fast as his little frail legs could take him, sweating and gasping for air in his lungs. She held on tight to his little hand, and so did he.

She didn't turn back again as she heard the young man behind her fighting off the bikers. She didn't turn back to see if he was doing fine or not. He was an idiot to get involved anyway. She didn't need anyone's help. She didn't _want_ any. But that all didn't matter for now. All that mattered to her was to get out of here alive and get to somewhere safe.

But was that fire she saw? On the young man's baseball bat?

They had to cross the road to get to the street across. They didn't have time to look left and right for any cars, she just ran straight for it and fortunately made it across with no risks of getting hit by any vehicles at all. The roar of the engine was still loud and deafening, and so close. They were still tailing them.

Can't expect one man to fight off the whole gang now, can you?

"Keep running, Ikki! Don't stop. Don't look back", the girl repeated over and over to the little boy at the mere age of 10, his red hoodie pulled over his dark brown hair and almost covering his eyes, backpack bumping on his back as he ran. He didn't respond in any way, just did what he was told and kept running, gradually struggling to keep pace. But he never gave up.

Even though she had told him not to look back, she did what she knew was a bad idea and looked back herself. She saw that the young man had help from a few other guys, and there it was - flaming red fire. Some were on their fists, some on their weapons like the man's baseball bat ealier. They had taken down at least 4 or 5 bikers, but the rest were not stopping to join in the fight. They were still after her. And here they come-

"Ooof!"

She should've been setting her eyes ahead and not on what's behind her. If she had, she wouldn't have bumped into someone.

She didn't have time to apologize, she didn't even have the time to look up to who she'd bumped into. She just swerved sideways to continue running but before she could take another step she felt a hand grabbing onto her arm, stopping her.

Her first thought was, 'oh no, they've got me'.

Her second thought was to run. Fucking run.

And that was what she did. Or at least attempted to. She jerked her arm to get away from the man but it was a firm grip. She wanted to hit him with her other hand, but at the same time she didn't want to release the boy's hand. She struggled a couple more times, "Let me go!", she yelled. This time she looked up, and saw that it wasn't any of the faces of her enemy. Vivid lime green eyes met striking ambers, strands of dark red hair falling down on the man's emotionless and unreadable face, half-burnt cigarette hanging loosely between his lips.

Kusanagi held out his hand as if to steady her, "Whoa, calm down! We've got things under control here now"

"Don't worry, we're here to help", Totsuka spoke, his smile so gentle and warm it really almost convinced her to let her guard down. ___Almost_.

"I don't need anybody's help", the girl said through gritted teeth, her eyes glaring at the three men, tall in stature and steady like pillars, standing in her way. It was then when she realized there was a little girl with pearl white hair standing just behind the red-haired man, looking up at her, and then turned her gaze to the little boy.

She looked up at the man who had his grip on her, and found him peering down on her with a hint of quizzical in his mesmerizing eyes, as if he was searching for something, yet his face was still impossible to read. And in that flash of a moment, she noticed something rather familiar about those amber orbs, but she couldn't quite point her finger at it.

She kept her face set, eyes glaring right at him and refusing to step back. After what felt like a moment too long to waste, the girl felt the grip on her arm loosen and, without a second thought, she ran, still holding as tightly as she did on the boy's hand, who was looking back at the little albino girl as he ran.

Mikoto pulled a long drag on his cigarette with his eyes closed before throwing it onto the pavement, ending it's last bit of life by squashing it under his shoe.

"Is it just me, or did that girl seem a little familiar?", asked Izumo as he watched the two of them run.

There was no reply to this from the King, just an apathetic 'hng' that gave no real indication whether he was agreeing with his friend or not, his cigarette hand returning to it's usual place in his pockets as he moved forward. And with every step he made, you could see red flames dancing around his shoe, and it grows and grows with each step. Izumo, his trustworthy friend for so long and HOMRA's second in command, was walking behind him, while Tatara, who could not fight at all, stayed back with Anna, mumbling to himself with a small curl on his lips, "I knew I should've brought my camera along."

A biker approached them, his bike making the deafening roar and the punk sitting behind had stood up from his seat and stretched out his hand that was holding a metal pole. He yelled and yelled as he came closer, ready to swing the pole right into the King's face. No matter how idiotic the JOKERS were, sometimes you can't help but be impressed by their courage and fearlessness. But if they really were fearless, why were they riding around in their bikes instead of getting down to fight properly?

Mikoto simply held out his flaming hand, and when the metal pole came, he grabbed it and with one good swing with both hands, he sent the idiot flying off the bike and rolling on his back in the middle of the road. The biker cursed aloud as turned to see his partner, and that was his mistake for he was caught off guard by Kusanagi when he simply flicked his cigarette at the motorbike, and in no time at all, it caught fire and exploded.

Yata, Kamamoto and the others had done a pretty good job and had taken down all of them, and the JOKERS, admitting defeat, finally retreated in the remaining bikes that hadn't crashed and burned.

Clansmen of HOMRA cheered for their second victory of the day.

"**NO BLOOD! NO BONE! NO ASH!**"

And all this while, the girl had turned around and watched in awe as they fought to help her fight off the enemy. Watched in amazement at the fire they seemed to had control over. But after deciding she had wasted too much time already, they continued on the run for safety, ignoring the fact that they might have just ran _into_ safety not too long ago.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE** / please excuse the cheesy and crappy title, for I have failed to come up with a much better one :c and I can honestly say I'm still trying to figure out where all this is going, because it didn't start out exactly like how I planned to. I'm not making and sense now, am I? haha. Just bear with me people.

Comments, critics, reviews are much welcomed!


	2. HELP

**#2 Help**

* * *

"This way, Ikki!"

She pulled him in as she turned around the corner into a narrow alleyway, and once they were deep enough, they finally stopped running. They struggled for air, huffing and puffing, and drenched in sweat. Then, as if their legs couldn't take it anymore, they both fell on their butts and leaned against the wall opposite each other. The young woman wiped away the sweat on her forehead that made her straight-cut bangs slightly wet, and found that the little boy sitting across her had done the same. Their eyes met, and the girl gave him a small smile.

"You okay, little guy?"

The boy nodded, his shoulders slumped in exhaustion and his legs spread out in front of him. He wasn't breathing as heavily as before, and so was she. The boy slipped his backpack off of his back and placed it beside him so that he could lean more comfortably.

Feeling extremely worn out herself, she took in a deep breath with her eyes closed, her head tilted slightly backwards, and then let out an exasperated sigh. She needed to calm herself down to think. Where could they go next? Where could they go for safety? Who could they go for help?

Wait, no. Nobody could help them. They shouldn't get anybody else involved. She could handle this on her own, like how she had always taken care of herself all her life. But now it's not just about her, is it? She had another life at stake here, and really, if she had to give up her life to keep the boy alive, she wouldn't think twice at all.

"Onee-chan... who were those guys earlier?", Ikki spoke, the same unusual shade of lime green eyes as her own peering at her.

Who _were_ those guys?

And that man. That man who had stood in her way earlier. Why did she felt like she'd seen him before? She racked her brain for a minute, searching in her memories.

"I... don't really know, Ikki"

"They look like they could help us, though"

"No."

"Why not?"

At this, she sighed. "Because, Ikki, do you want them to end up like Ren and the others?" There was a hint of anger in her tone as she said this, her eyes looking down at the filthy ground they were sitting on, eyebrows slightly furrowed.

Ikki's eyes widened a bit at her words, feeling the realization hitting him. He looked down at the ground as well with his head hung low.

There was nothing but silence after that as flashbacks of what happened pierced through their minds, as much as they didn't want to be reminded of that horrible incident at all. The girl found herself clenching her fists and her jaw, eyebrow twitching in anger at the memories.

But with one look at her brother, a mix of emotions displayed on his face - guilt, heartbreak, anger, sorrow, generally sadness, the girl immediately soften up, pushing all other thoughts far back in her mind. "Hey", she called, her voice ever so gentle. The boy looked up at her.

"We're gonna get through this, okay? It's just you and me against the world now."

_It's us against the world._

Her heart clenched as she remembered those words, only it was not her's but another man's voice. Someone who meant so much to the both of them. Now gone forever. She realized she shouldn't have said that. Anything but that.

But to her relief, Ikki seemed a little brightened up, as if her words had given him courage, and strength. He wiped off the tears at the corners of his eyes, and then gave her a big smile.

That's my boy, she thought to herself, and returned him a proud smile. She then held out her hands for an embrace, and he got up from his spot crashed into her arms. She never thought of herself a good enough sister, since she never really knew how to take care of people, not to say that she never tried. But now, she thought, was probably the best time to fix that. Ikki needed her. And she was all he had left.

He broke the embrace, stretching his hands and placed them on her shoulders. He looked down, and in a surprised and horrified tone he said, "Onee-chan!"

Curious, she looked down as well, only to find a little red patch on her white tank top beneath her favorite army jacket with leather sleeves. She pulled the jacket away a bit, and saw that that red patch was not _little_at all. The blood had spread from the left side of her hip, where the blood seemed to come from, to nearly across her waist and back. How could she not realized this any sooner?

She had been shot.

"Onee-chan! Wha... We need to get you fixed!", Ikki looked frantic, his hands were restless as if he didn't where to put them. She suspected he wanted to put them on her wound to stop the bleeding, but she couldn't let his hands get stained by blood. So she did it before he could. Now she realized how much it hurt. Funny how a wound wouldn't hurt until you actually notice it. This was also probably the reason why she felt so worn out. She was losing too much blood by the minute.

"I'm fine, Ikki. I just- agh!", she tried to get to her feet to prove to her brother, but she couldn't even budge because of the pain it caused when she tried to move.

"We need to get you to the hospital!", Ikki looked as if he was about to cry, but you could see how hard he was fighting off those tears from shedding. _Since when have you gotten so strong, Ikki?, _she couldn't help but smile at that thought.

"What are you smiling about? You're hurt!", the confused yet frantic look on his face was priceless, to be honest, and she had to stiffle a laugh. She was loosing blood by the second and here she was, trying not to laugh.

"Ikki, I can't go to the hospital. They'll find me. They probably know I was shot", she realized how tired her voice sounded, and her eyes were getting heavier and heavier.

"What should I do?", his voice was small, as if he was talking to himself.

"You're such a brave boy, Ikki... Just like him", now she was fighting to keep her eyes open, her breathing was heavy.

"Onee-chan... Don't... Don't leave me, too", Ikki's voice seemed so far away, and she couldn't barely hear him sobbing. But she definitely felt him shaking her shoulder to keep her awake. That did the magic, but only for a short moment.

"I-I'll go get help, okay? Just... Just stay awake! Don't sleep, you hear me? DON'T. SLEEP."

Where was he going? Why was he leaving her side?

"Ikki..."

She moved to reach out her hands for him, but found that she had no strength at all. She felt so tired. Her vision was so blurry as she watched her little brother run out and left her. She tried to call out to him, to stop him, to tell him to come back, to warn him about how dangerous it was to run out alone, to tell him everything was okay, or at least, lie to him about that.

Because how could everything be okay right now?

"I'm sorry..."

* * *

He was out on the run again. But this time he was running for help.

His sister was dying.

Ikki's eyes were looking everywhere, at everyone for help. But none of them seemed like they could help him at all. He just didn't know who to trust. He didn't know who to turn to. He wanted so much to cry at his helplessness, to beg, but he fought the tears back and refused to let his weak side take over. He refused to give up.

_Help! Help! Someone help me, please!_

He screamed those words in his mind, but not aloud. Curious looks were thrown his way as he ran past the people walking the streets, but none seemed promising enough.

_Isn't there anyone who can help?_

His eyes were busy looking anywhere but where he was heading when he ran into someone. He was almost knocked over but was caught in arm before he could fall on his back.

"Watch where you're going, kid!"

Ikki looked up, and saw that it was the teenager from earlier, the one who had flames on his baseball bat and took down two of those bikers with one swift and cool move while on his skateboard. And standing beside him was a big man with a belly and black sunglasses shading his eyes. They were both looking down at him, the teenager with the beanie and red sweater tied around his waist had a pretty fierce look on his face, while the other seemed quite calm.

"Give him a break, Yata-san. He's just a kid.", said the big man.

Suddenly, the look on Yata's face shifted, as if he noticed something. "Eh? Is something wrong, kid? Are you running from a bully? Where is he-"

"Hey... you're the kid from earlier, aren't ya? With the girl being chased by those JOKERS", Yata was interrupted by the big man with shades, pointing at him.

"Hey, you're right, Kamamoto"

"Can you help me?", Ikki practically begged, his gleaming eyes with tears threatening to fall looking up helplessly at the young man.

Yata and Kamamoto exchanged a look. Then, with a serious look on his face, Yata's hazel eyes looked straight into the little boy's lime green orbs and said, "Show the way, kid"

* * *

Yata and Kamamoto followed the little boy and ran down the street. Personally, Yata would've just hopped on his skateboard to go faster, but then he wouldn't know where to go with the boy running behind him, so he settled with his feet.

"Told you you should start hitting the gym!", Yata said to his partner, Kamamoto, who was beginning to struggle to keep pace and breathing heavily. He decided not to reply to this, because he was already fighting to breath.

The kid was a a few steps ahead of them, and as he turned around a corner and disappeared, Yata and Kamamoto followed suit and found themselves in an alleyway, only a small gap between two shops.

"Onee-chan!"

The little boy stopped and got down on his knees beside a female, and as they got closer, they realized it was none other than the young woman they had helped fight off the JOKERS earlier that day.

The boy called for his sister again, shaking her shoulder a little harder this time. But no response. Her hand lifelessly dropping from her stomach onto the ground, revealing a big patch of bloody red on her shirt.

"She's hurt!"

Kamamoto crouched down as well to check on her. "She's still breathing. Come on, kid. Let's get her to the hospital", he was ready to pick the girl up, but as he did, the boy stopped him abruptly.

"No! Not the hospital! She said they'd find us there", he said.

The two partners exchanged a look again. "Guess we'll have to take her back to headquarters then. See if Kusanagi-san can do anything about it", and with that, Kamamoto effortlessly picked her up in his hands, and off they went, heading towards HOMRA's headquaters.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE** / okay this is a bit of a boring chapter, really. but if I keep going it'll probably be too long for your liking .-.

so chapter 3 will probably be coming up real soon!

**THANK YOU** for following and all the favorites! it means a lot to me because i really don't have much confidence in this story to be honest...

but i'll try my very best to not let you guys down! keep supporting! reviews are always welcomed!


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